My favorite Chapter: Quick Breads

Oh how I love quick breads! They can be sweet or savory; filled with fruits or spices or both! To me, a quick bread is a quick breakfast on the go, or the smell of cinnamon rolls in the oven!

To start this chapter off right, King Arthur Foulr starts with All-Star Muffins. This was the first time I decided to invest in a new type of flour that I do not remember using in the past: cake flour. The recipe calls out for your standard muffin stuff: flour, sugar, baking powder and soda, eggs, vanilla.... With this recipe however, there were some steps that I was not used to when preparing muffins. I always thought that making muffins, you would never use your electric mixer and only combine the mixture of batter until wet. This is true, but in the KAF All-star muffin mixture, you beat the eggs, sugar and wet ingredients until light and fluffy, then mix in (still with the mixer) until the flour mixture is combined. Then of course, add whatever you choose! The possibilities are endless, and KAF gives some scrumptious suggestions, such as cherry chocolate chip, peanut butter, maple walnut and various others. Because I had some apples to use up, I tried their apple cinnamon. Because I am somewhat lazy when it comes to peeling apples, I decided not to, more fiber anyway, right?!? And the results were:

absolutely awesome!

These muffins were so light and delicate, and of course, I packed them full of apples pieces. They were seriously out of this world!

I think my co-workers were disappointed to here that my husband brought a few to his work...and the rest were eaten at the Denz house! I think I will definitely try all of the other combinations and even create my own in the very near future! Oh yeah, and you can even keep the batter in the fridge for up to a week, and bake a few at a time...warm muffins with coffee, oh so good! I did test this trick out, to make sure they were just as good the second time, and of course, they were!

This is the King Arthur Flour Recipe that I used:

All-Star Muffins

From King Arthur Flour (http://www.kingarthurflour.com/)

3-1/2 cups (14-3/4 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour or cake flour (14 ounces)
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
8 Tbsp. (1 stick, 4 ounces) butter
1 cup (7 ounces) sugar
3 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup (8 ounces) sour cream

Preheat oven to 400* F and lightly grease 16 muffin cups or use paper liners. 

In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, 

and salt, then set aside. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar 

together with a handheld or stand mixer until light and fluffy and almost white 

in color.  Scrape down the bowl to make sure all the butter is incorporated, add 

the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Add the vanilla and 

sour cream and mix until incorporated.  Add the dry ingredients and mix on low 

speed just until the batter is smooth.  Fill muffin cups and bake for 18 to 24 

minutes, until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.  Remove 

them from the oven, cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then remove the muffins from 

the pan to finish cooling on a rack.  (Muffins left in pan to cool will become 

tough from steaming.)

Variations:
Apple Cinnamon:  Peel and grate 3 to 4 tart apples, such as Granny Smith or 

Jonathon.  Fold into muffin batter with ¼ cup cinnamon sugar. (1/4 cup sugar 

1 tsp. cinnamon)  Top muffins with more cinnamon sugar before baking, if desired.  (I used turbinado sugar)

Apricot, cherry, cranberry, date, raisin:  Soak 2 cups of any of these dried 

fruits in 1/3 cup orange juice, water, rum or bourbon, then fold into the muffin 

batter.  Garnish muffin tops with chopped nuts if desired.  

Apple, banana, nectarine, peach, plum:  Dice 3 cups of any of these fruits and 

fold into batter before baking.  Garnish muffin tops with granulated sugar.

Blueberry, raspberry, blackberry:  Fold 3 cups berries into batter before baking; 

sprinkle the tops with cinnamon sugar or streusel before baking.

Carrot-Ginger-Raisin:  Add 2 cups shredded carrots, 1/2 cup crystallized or 

minced fresh ginger, and 1-1/2 cups raisins to batter before baking.

Cherry Chocolate Chip:  Add 1-1/4 cups dried sweet cherries (soaked in ¾ cup 

liquid for 20 minutes if they’re very hard) and 1-1/4 cups chocolate chips to 

batter before baking.

Peanut butter chocolate chip:  Add 1-1/2 cups creamy peanut butter )it helps 

to soften the peanut butter in the microwave before combining it with the batter)

 and 1-1/2 cups chocolate chips to batter before baking.

Toffee Chocolate Chip:  Add a 10-ounce bag of Heath bar bits or 1-1/2 cups of 

your favorite buttercrunch and 1-1/2 cups chocolate chips to batter before baking.

Apricot almond:  Add 1/2 tsp. almond extract, 1-1/2 cups diced apricots, and 

1 cup sliced almonds to batter before baking.

Banana Coconut:  Add 2 diced bananas and 1-1/2 cups shredded sweetened coconut 

to batter before baking.

Date Nut:  Add 1-1/2 cups each dates and pecans to batter before baking.

Maple Walnut:  add 1/2 cup maple sugar and 1-1/2 to 2 cups chopped walnuts to 

batter before baking. 

Waldorf:  Add 2 tart apples, grated and peeled, 1/2 cup chopped dates and 1/2 

cup chopped walnuts to batter before baking.

...Okay, I am running right into the next chapter - Buckles, Cobblers and crisps

And no, I did not do these on the same day, I just didn't get a chance to get to my blog until now! Blueberry Crisp was the first recipe, and lucky me, I have a freezer full of blueberries thanks to my mom's enormous blueberry bush patch! I added a few drops of lemon oil to this recipe, and added the crisp topping. I did not any nuts at this time, and this was the first time that I did not add oatmeal to my crisp topping. It was a blueberry wonderland, but I should have cooked this mixture much longer. With all of the flour and sugar in the topping, the crisp needed to be in the over far longer than it said in order to make sure the middle of the crust mixture was cooked. Th edges were very good, but I admit, I had to throw the mixture back in the oven the next day. Top it off with vanilla icecream when warm, and you have a New England masterpiece!

It looked pretty, but should have had more time in the oven...I guess I needed more patience!